Steerlife And Manipal University Join Hands To Set Up Pharmaceutical And Life Sciences Industry

STEERLife, creator of cutting edge, proprietary continuous processing technology, and Manipal University today announced a partnership to establish a Centre of Excellence dedicated to helping the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry transition from conventional batch processing to continuous processing thereby providing time and cost efficiencies, reducing wastage and delivering greener process. The Centre, located at the Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MCOPS) campus, will combine industrial expertise, academic prowess coupled with collaborative in-depth research to develop solutions in highly diversified areas of life sciences that can effectively help the industry battle problems related to regulatory burden, reject rates, time and cost inefficiencies as well as limitations of working with sensitive and valuable materials.

“Under the terms of the partnership STEERLife will provide proprietary co-rotating twin screw technology platform and equipment, sponsor a doctoral research program and impart the requisite training. The Centre will also engage students pursuing their Masters, Doctoral and Postdoctoral studies on research based projects and mentor them in specific areas. As part of this engagement, the identified students will spend time at STEERLife’s Pharmaceutical Development Center in Bengaluru for hands-on industrial experience,” said Indu Bhushan, Chief Technical Officer, STEERLife.

The initiative comes at a time when regulatory agencies across the globe are increasingly driving the adoption of continuous processing for its numerous advantages related to flexibility, efficiency and the environment. With the Manipal Centre of Excellence being the first of its kind in India, STEERLife, as a part of it’s continuing commitment and efforts to realise its vision of changing the way medicines and nutritional products are made and taken, is also partnering with academic institutions of repute in the US.

Speaking of the partnership, Dr. Babu Padmanabhan, Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer, STEERLife and Founder & Promoter, STEER Group, said, “We are honoured to be associated with an institution of the stature of Manipal University. The Centre of Excellence provides a platform for the industry and academia to work together on developing innovative solutions that could transform millions of lives. Our proprietary continuous processing technology helps control shear, remove stagnation and effectively transform characteristics of bio-based and synthesised materials making pharmaceutical products, food, and nutritional products safer and more effective. The technology when coupled with some of the most intelligent minds from Manipal University, can truly help India deliver solutions that are world class and life changing”.

The Centre of Excellence will expose students and researchers to cutting edge technology capable of processing materials of the future without the limitations present in today’s solutions.

Dr. H. Vinod Bhat, Vice Chancellor, Manipal University, said, “Manipal Institutions have long been distinguished for excellence in education. We strive to provide our students with world-class facilities and real-time experiences that can help develop them into global leaders. The Centre of Excellence is one such initiative — where for the first time engineering and pharmaceutical sciences are coming together to give our students access to cutting-edge technology and expertise that has the potential to revolutionise life sciences. We are delighted to partner with STEERLife in making this a reality.”

The STEERLife Manipal Centre of Excellence is likely to commence operations on January 1st, 2017.